


Essentials of Alien Affection

by cortanaG



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Explicit Language, F/M, First Dates, Humor, Illicit Behavior, Making Out, Non-Graphic Violence, Sexual Humor, Unrequited Love (alluded to), chaotic energy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27463108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cortanaG/pseuds/cortanaG
Summary: It's hard to go out with someone while being shot at the whole time. Ahsoka and Fives would know.
Relationships: CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Essentials of Alien Affection

“I don’t get the concept of  _ dating _ . Doesn’t it just mean you rendezvous with  _ one _ girl, like, maybe a few times a week to bust her pussy open? Why do people make it out to be so much more complicated?”

“That’s fucking gross, Jesse. Gods, don’t make me think of the commander like that.”

“I wasn’t thinking of the  _ commander _ specifically.”

Someone else piped up. “ _ I _ was.”

“If that were actually the case, I don’t think Fives would go out of his way to bathe in scent-infused liquid he stole from a rural village. That smell is fucking  _ putrid _ , by the way. If Commander Tano  _ doesn’t _ vomit the minute she inhales that -”

“Fuck off,” Fives said simply. A clone’s life rarely rendered anyone privacy, but they were all used to that. It was the reason he was standing in front of a lighted mirror in the barracks lounge room, and instead of residing among the privacy he’d oh-so graciously and offhandedly requested, more than several members of the five-oh-first had seated themselves enthusiastically in his proximity. Usually, Fives wouldn’t choose to be above engaging in the banter and pornographic conversations, but this was a rare circumstance in which his nerves commenced with their effects.

“Ignore them,” Echo told him, though he didn’t have to. Fives was doing an excellent job of disregarding the party of troopers intent on humiliating him and driving him batshit insane. “Hey, you don’t need to be so nervous either,  _ ner vod _ . Where exactly are you taking her?”

“Nowhere too fancy. I know she’s not trying to be treated like some kriffing royalty -”

“Aw, guys, he knows her so  _ well _ -”

“- so I figured Bayde Rel might be nice. Sarge took us there during training on Coruscant that one time, remember?”

Echo nodded from where he stood leaning against the wall by the mirror, his arms folded. He’d refused to join the table obnoxiously mocking Fives directly behind his miniature dressing station. The novelty of a genuine relationship beginning to unfold between the most unlikely candidates had eventually worn off the string of outrageous and ridiculous taunts from the men until they’d settled into a card game, the contents of which were yet more stolen artifacts from an off-planet world. 

Fives despised looking at himself in a mirror for vanity purposes, and avoided it when necessary; but in his head, this was an extraordinarily special occasion and he was willing to forget all major discomforts of his to please his Jedi commander. Meeting his own eyes in the reflection now, he realized he wasn’t too sure why he’d just assumed a date had to adhere to severe expectations. The nerve-laden worry currently infecting the pit of his stomach probably accounted for something though, he thought. 

“Speaking of Corrie ARC training,” Echo said, “I just remembered that weirdass  _ di’kut _ bounty hunter that you unwisely provoked into -”

The makeshift comb Fives was snipping through his hair suddenly clattered to the countertop. He cursed under his breath and rounded on what had been the only source of comfort within the barracks chaos. “Yeah, thank you, Echo,” Fives snapped. “Real karking helpful. Yes, I’ve realized that by going out exposed into Coruscant without the direct cover of a GAR command might be….risky. For me. In particular.”

Echo held out both palms, but Fives turned back to the mirror with a huff as soon as he spotted amused realization pool in his brother’s eyes. A toothy grin grew on Echo’s face. 

“You didn’t tell her!” he exclaimed joyfully. “Shit, Fives. Being an arrogant asshole doesn’t always pay off when you’re trying to take your girl on a date, huh?”

Fives gripped the edge of the counter and groaned. “You’re as bad as they are, Echo.”

“KRIFFING FUCK!” Hardcase suddenly bellowed. His chair made an awful scraping noise as he bolted upright like an arrow to his feet, and an uproar of unholy laughter tainted the room. 

“Do  _ not _ call -”

“I’m calling bantha _ shit _ ! Look at those cards, is everyone seeing this? There’s no way!” Hardcase violently gestured to the display of playing cards spread out in front of Tup. Kix began to giggle horrendously from his place beside their younger  _ vod _ , bumping his cheek into Jesse’s shoulder plate. 

“You’re such a sore-ass loser, ‘Case. You could get gunned down by a SBD and come back to life just to slap it in the face and say ‘no fair.’”

Hardcase whacked his hand outward and his cards went skewering over Kix’s head. “Don’t you  _ dare _ compare me to Marshall Commander Dickwad, Kix. Tup’s just a little bastard and he knows it.”

Between studying his well-tucked cards like a damn crime boss and yanking on Kix’s arm to prevent him from clambering onto the table, Jesse tossed his head over his shoulder to rudely involve himself in Echo and Fives’s conversation. 

“Fives got attention from a bounty hunter? And I’m assuming you blew him  _ so _ good he’ll want another go, right?”

Echo had to bite his lip hard as a laugh lurched from his belly and Hardcase just cackled. “Uh-oh,  _ dra- _ ma! Does Commander Tano know you suck dick better than a -”

“How many blasts would it even take to shut you up, Hardcase?” Fives seethed. “Ten? A hundred, maybe? I should just call in the fucking rocket launchers.”

“It does seem unlikely,” Echo said, raising his voice above the snickering commotion. “But this guy had you tagged like his own life  _ plus _ his family’s depended on yours  _ ending _ , Fives. There are so many filthy lurkers in the streets. Any one of them could have your tracking record and shoot to obliterate.” 

Fives remembered that Ahsoka requested he didn’t bring any blasters almost as soon as his proposal to take her out left his mouth. It sickened him to think he’d purposefully endanger her by choosing not to warn her about a possible assassination attempt, but he felt out of place deciding what would make his Jedi superior unsafe compared to judgement of his own proficiency in an ops-like setting. Besides, he was desperate to have a private night with Ahsoka that excluded any evidence of their crudely vicious routine of normalcy. That included ranks,  _ weapons, _ according to Ahsoka - and of course the low-lives he’d met along the course of his training, ones who’d previously sworn to spot him alone amidst the Coruscant public. 

Fives caught a glimpse of royal blue layered over a complex assortment of plastoid in the mirror and looked down at himself. His back teeth ground together. Of  _ course, _ in his frenzy of anxious panic he’d left his damn armor on. This attire was certainly proof enough of his soldierly lifestyle. 

The rambunctious table quieted a mere fraction when the items laid out on Fives’s counter were swatted to the floor and a frustrated growl sprang from Fives’s throat. “Fuck me in the  _ ass _ -”

“Only after the date, sir!”

“- I don’t know what the hell I’m kriffing doing.” Fives ran his fingers through his hair and turned wide-eyed to Echo. “I’m not ready to go on this date. Shit.”

Echo’s lips pursed into a thin line, his brows easing back into place as his whole countenance softened. “Fives, you got the hard part out of the way,” he said, and placed a cautious hand on Fives’s shoulder. “She already said yes. That means she  _ wants _ to spend time with you.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I want to do this. I’m  _ going _ to do this.” Fives ducked his chin to his chest for a moment. With his eyes roaming at an angle to the floor, he saw the slumped-over satchel Hardcase had discarded when rushing back into the lounge room on his way out, after he’d caught immediate wind of Fives’s date. 

“A part of me just feels so fucking weird doing all this. And I don’t want to disappoint her,” Fives mused bitterly. He extended a hand toward the satchel and groped at air until Echo got the hint to fetch him what he wanted. “And I’d rather an assassin not shoot at us while we’re trying not to flaunt who we are in public over some fucking, like, steamed ociock eggs and nerf meat.”

Jesse snorted. “That choice of food? Your  _ first _ fucking mistake.”

Echo passed Fives the satchel, and he proceeded to stuff his twin blasters inside. 

“A clone unfit for an illicit relationship with a Jedi? That’s the shocker for me, boys,” Kix said flatly. 

“ _ This is the HoloNet News and Entertainment Station, _ ” Hardcase chirped in dramatic exaggeration. His eyes flashed deviously. “ _ A young Jedi padawan of our beloved Republic has just been reported shot on sight by a local, amateur bounty hunter. She was sniped while engaging in an inappropriately compromising feat with a clone reconnaissance soldier of the Grand Army - _ ”

“Hardcase, you’re  _ really _ fucking pushing it -”

But the explosive laughter of their corner drowned out Fives’s protests. He leaned into the comfort of Echo’s arm as the card game quickly dissolved into the boys’ unifying ritual of making jests out of Fives. The flame that was sizzling under Fives’s skin finally inflamed his chest and fanned out through his limbs. It was when they began imitating a potential conversation between him and Ahsoka that Fives was prepared to march over to Hardcase and beat the shit out of him - he’d made it about  _ two _ steps with Echo’s fingers dancing at his elbow when the whole table of troopers suddenly lapsed into total silence. 

Fives was momentarily struck in puzzlement by their fallen faces and wavering, awkward amber eyes, but it didn’t compare to the surprise that overtook him when he spun to the doorway. 

“Ahsoka, what the hell?” Fives shouted against his will. 

She smiled brightly as she strolled towards them, unreceptive of the dramatically ceased ruckus. Her blue eyes sparkled like tinted crystals as she came to stand by Fives, and he found himself staring at the dark flush of her plump lips amidst the crashing turmoil curling within him. It occurred to him that although she hadn’t enhanced her features in any sort of way, she still came off as ten times more dazzling than normal - which was probably the effect of his conditional expectations for what entailed a ‘date.’ She did have a gray shawl strewn around her shoulders, though; it was a nice decorative element, Fives thought, even if it had an underlying purpose to disguise her identity out in an overpopulated city. 

“Hey, Fives,” she said sweetly, and reached for his gloved hand. He squeezed her fingers as her other hand ran up his gauntlet, and felt a bit odd at being caught so distressed while she was here in the barracks, as relaxed and calm as he’d ever seen her. They’d grown shamelessly comfortable with public affection, which was admittedly a dangerous habit. Ahsoka studied his struck expression with a small frown before glancing over to where everyone’s eyes were boring into them. “What’s wrong? Were you boys talking about me?”

“All good things, commander,” Jesse said with an affirmative nod. 

“How endearing,” Ahsoka deadpanned. She turned to look back up at Fives. “You ready?”

Fives was still staring at her, trying to combine snippets of his jumbled thoughts into comprehensible, legitimate vocalizations. “Well, uh….no, actually, no.” He gestured to his armor. “I’m wearing this fucking  _ armor _ , for the love of the Force.”

The white markings on the ridge of Ahsoka’s eyes scrunched, making her look at Fives like he’d just asked her to braid her lekku. “ _ I’m _ wearing what I always wear,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s a different copy than the one I had on for the last siege - this outfit’s  _ clean _ \- but, y’know.”

Fives was about to protest but Ahsoka brought her hand up to cup the side of his face before dropping it back by her side. “I prefer you in your armor anyway. It’s  _ you _ . What are you supposed to wear otherwise?”

He didn’t have an answer, so he just shrugged at that. His head still felt like a witch’s pot overflowing with the steam of impatient speculations, so he asked, “How did you get in here?”

Ahsoka shrugged. “Rex just let me in.”

Fives felt his throat tighten. “ _ Rex? _ Why would he do that?”

“Rex isn’t going to deny  _ me _ access to the barracks.”

Fives glanced at the observing table, and they all simultaneously met his gaze with a stiff weariness. “Yeah, but, does he know we’re all back here?”

“I dunno. I’d assume so.” Fives could tell Ahsoka was putting on a facade, because while she ignored the possibilities of roused tension and carried on, he knew she at least cared about those potential issues as much as he did. “What’s the big deal? You’ve been in here longer than I have.”

Ahsoka’d said that like a reminder, like he should’ve maintained control over that ordeal. A groan vibrated from the back of Fives’s throat and he ran a hand up Ahsoka’s arm. “Shit.”

Echo scoffed from beside them. “Of  _ course _ Rex knows the two of you are going out. What, did you think you’d hide it from him?”

Ahsoka’s mouth fell open in offense. “I never said that!” 

Echo folded his arms across his chest and fell back against the wall with a tired sigh. “He may be the captain, but  _ she’s _ the commander. What is he going to do about it, anyway?”

Fives shook his head, because his  _ vod _ was almost always the  _ last _ thing from reassuring. “Yes, Echo, I get it, but I didn’t want -” Fives paused and glanced around the room, and his voice trailed off into a prolonged, debating grunt. 

“No, okay, whatever. I wanna get the fuck out of here anyway,” he said with as much hostility he could muster. His insides surged with a nagging irritation that he really wished wasn’t there while trying to leave with Ahsoka. To get things moving, and to hopefully instill a more romantic tenor to his mood, he dropped a hand to the small of her back and urged her to the doorway. 

“Ready?” Fives ducked his head to press his lips against Ahsoka’s cheek, ignoring the bold sound of jeering behind them. 

Ahsoka grinned and slid an arm around his waist. “Have been for the better part of two hours, love.”

“You two are so sickeningly sweet,” someone said. 

“Stay cool, Tup!” Ahsoka tossed cheerily over her shoulder. Amidst turning back, she noticed the satchel hanging from a frayed strap off Fives’s pauldron. She snagged at the bag with her hand so he could feel it. “What’s this for?”

Fives looked at her curious expression, delayed answering by taking his time to  _ look _ at the bag, and released a stifled groan that  _ definitely _ meant he wished she hadn’t pointed it out. 

“Er, back-up contents for the road?” he lied roughly. 

Ahsoka shook her head at him in disbelief, but she had to mash her bottom lip between her teeth to prevent a laugh. “What does that even  _ mean _ ? It isn’t what I said  _ not _ to -”

“No, no,” Fives said quickly. His heart pounded under the notion that she’d sense his feelings through the force. He just rubbed her back and continued his efforts of shuffling them out of the damn barracks. “I didn’t forget, trust me. It’s, um. A surprise. It might not be a  _ good _ one, but a surprise nonetheless….”

“Oo-kay….”

Panic stirred in Fives when he saw Echo frown out of the corner of his eye, and when his face pinched into a puzzled countenance Fives sharply avoided him. 

“Wait, um, Fives, don’t you have something you want to tell -”

“Thanks for all the help and support, Echo,” Fives spat through gritted teeth, cutting Echo off. “You really are my favorite brother, you know that? Gods, you  _ always _ have my back. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Ahsoka actually laughed. “My gods, Fives, is it me or Echo you’re taking out on a date?”

“Lets leave before this place becomes a murder scene,” Fives grumbled, ignorning her amusement. 

For unidentified reasons, the cluster of burbling troopers took that as their cue to revitalize back into noise and crude gesticulations. 

“Have fun!” 

“I know you get frisky fast, Fives, but remember not to take it out until  _ after _ the dinner!”

As Fives steered Ahsoka through the doorway, he hugged her closer to his side to prevent her from looking back. He did, though, to fire them a threatening glare, but he immediately regretted it; Jesse had maneuvered behind Hardcase and they were both jerking their bodies at a sporadic rhythm while rolling their eyes back in a gross display of pleasure. Tup and Kix groped at each other’s armor and pretended to make out; everyone else stuck their tongues through the Vs they made with their fingers. 

And Echo just stood there with clear disapproval on his face. 

Coruscant had always been a spectacle to behold, but Fives had never taken Ahsoka for one to admire the beams of colorful light that flooded the city by strolling across the network of walkways. He supposed observing her solely from the stance of battle and her warrior lifestyle restricted his knowledge of what Ahsoka’s nature amidst a civilian environment might look like. That was at least a perk of going on this date, because as the night ensued with Ahsoka’s fingers intertwined with his, Fives felt like the mere concept of a date in no way altered the connection that had grown between them. It was just them, only now several klicks above racing traffic with the expanse of a starry sky stretched high above, the surrounding murmur of passerby settled into their background.

“I wish we could spend at least one  _ whole _ day together,” Ahsoka said softly, when they’d nestled against the railway to stare out at the city’s dazzling complexity. 

Fives tore his gaze away from the dimmed outline of a casino’s roof to their right, and it fell onto the sparse civvies walking across the duracrete. In that moment it happened to be a pink female Twi’lek and a Chiss male, drenched in the neon green light casted down from the casino’s large, twinkling sign, who both met his gaze with odd looks before he blinked away. Most Coruscant civilians only glanced at Fives’s armor before immediately looking away, uncaring, and Ahsoka looked relatively normal. But those who weren’t distracted by a conversation or an activity and paid him more mind than necessary would take note of Ahsoka’s comfortable place by his side, and stare at them in startled contemplation. 

Ahsoka was staring at the lanes of speeders below with longing on her face, and through that flare of green that spilled over her face Fives saw that familiar void in her eyes. It was the void of endless speculation, of a fruitless desire to break the barrier of blissful ignorance and to delve into the world of possibilities. He wanted to immerse himself, because he felt it too, from time to time, even without a formidable structure to base those thoughts on, but found he couldn’t. The anxiety of being exposed out in Coruscant whilst there was a thirst for his head had infected his mind to where it drove him crazy, and he felt terrible for not being in a state where he could feel all what Ahsoka was obviously asking of him to feel with her. He wanted to pay attention solely to her, but it was hard when his body stiffened at every sharp movement in the crowds around them. 

“I’ve found it’s better not to think like that,” he said. “It sucks, sure, but I consider myself pretty lucky. As, y’know, as lucky as a clone  _ can _ be during a galactic war.”

“Isn’t that what makes this….pointless?”

“What?”

“Us. Being the way we are together. Why do we even bother?”

Fives felt the ricocheting of his pounding heartbeat wheeze through his brain, and he was positive it wasn’t because he was worried a sniper might take him out at any second. “Why would you say that?”

“You and me finding each other the way we did shouldn’t be something that’s  _ lucky _ . It should be natural. Something that’s bound to happen either way.” Ahsoka sighed and tilted her head to lean against Fives’s chest plate. Overwhelmed, he shifted so that she was pressed between his front and the railing, boxed in by his hands clenching the durasteel tightly. He pushed his cheek into the side of her lek affectionately, alert now with fright for her true meaning. 

“We have a place in this war, Fives,” she continued. “Don’t you ever think that we should focus on that? The way we’re supposed to?”

“You said that one time we can’t decide for ourselves what should and shouldn’t be, like, hypotheticals. We live in the world that we know, and we just go along with that. It’s hard not to wonder, or dream about all the….possibilities, but you did say you had to work on finding a balance for yourself,” Fives said a bit hesitantly. He swallowed back a croak that lurked in his throat, no doubt a product of his panic he was desperately trying to subside. 

“My master had told me that.” Fives could hear the smile in her voice. 

“That sounded pretty reasonable to me,” he said. “You’re probably just thinking about it too hard again.” 

Ahsoka’s thin, delicate fingers laid over the fist Fives had balled over the railing. He flipped his palm up to take her hand. “I can sense how uneasy you are, Fives,” she said lightly. “Ever since the barracks, too, actually. But - I’m sorry, I’m not trying to worry you. I just want everything I do to  _ mean _ something. I don’t want to be….indulging an obstacle, or anything like that.”

Her thumb was tracing patterns on his palm, but Fives felt his stomach churning in major discomfort. “Do you….you think of what we’ve got going on as an  _ obstacle _ ?”

Ahsoka twisted to face him, a sadness etched in the small smile tugging at the corners of her lips, and Fives released the railing to wrap his forearm around her back. “No,” she told him quietly, and her sparkling eyes seemed to be piercing into him, freezing him into an intimacy she reinforced by sliding a gentle hand down the plane of his face. “This is like a blessing, Fives, of course you’re not an obstacle. The force doesn’t even tell me this is wrong.” Her chin dropped down to her chest for a moment, and a wide grin broke out on her face. 

“I’m  _ exactly _ the kind of Jedi who’d think nothing of bending the rules every which way,” she said with a huff of laughter. “And still, it hits me sometimes that us together would be frowned upon - but not even for the right reasons. Like, I’d understand if the argument was  _ ‘distraction’  _ from our obligations as important soldiers….but it’s our superiors who make it way more complicated. It makes me question how valid their arguments really are then, y’know? The council would say some banthashit about attachment; which, I honestly understand, and I don’t want to be selfish. But it still comes back to the whole ‘duty first’ mindset. And I’m not  _ selfish _ in my….attachment to you. I know what I need to do as a Jedi, I  _ trust _ myself. But then there’s my master! You’ve seen how he’s reacted every time he catches on to us a little more. He’s  _ insanely _ overprotective. What’s more distracting than controlling the personal life of your mentee? I don’t even  _ know _ anymore….”

Fives had to chuckle then. “No, I think that’s all some pretty good stuff. It’s, um. Not always easy to share what’s on your mind with someone else like that.” A sequence of events sped through his mind right then, of the drunken spiels he’d imposed time and time again on his bar buddies, of the passionate rallies he’d contrived, the intense lecturing, even the borderline treasonous monologues of which every member of Torrent Company could probably quote word for word by now. As he took both of Ahsoka’s hands in his and clasped them against his chest, it was somewhat confounding in the moment to think that he’d always spoken his mind, and his brothers never denied him the floor  _ or _ their attention whenever he spoke. 

“I’m sorry,” Ahsoka huffed, embarrassed. “This was supposed to be our fucking  _ date _ ! You probably didn’t come out here tonight to listen to all that shit.”

Fives felt pleasantly refreshed in a way he definitely hadn’t expected from Ahsoka’s initial ruminations. He supposed he’s never been one to turn away from a deep conversation, though. He let  _ ‘what else would we talk about?’ _ sit between them. 

“I’ll talk about whatever you want to talk about,” he murmured, ducking his head and bumping his nose against hers. “Doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s you I’m spending my time with tonight.”

“I’m blaming  _ you _ ,” Ahsoka joked, nuzzling forward so their faces fit together. “I spend too much time looking at you and my mind goes places I could never imagine.”

She was exhaling compressed laughter, but a delicate portion of Fives’s heart embedded into his very essence privately hoped she really meant that, on some level. His gaze was drawn to the sweet spread of her lips and his own inched forward. 

“Sometimes people unlock the secrets of the galaxy when they’re on an empty stomach,” Fives said. “How about we grab some food?”

Ahsoka hummed in approval, and while she was thrumming with bubbly energy, rolling onto her toes and shifting on either foot, Fives was planted solid. 

“I’d like that,” she said heartily. Fives tried to kiss her then, but her mouth kept moving. “Where would we even go? Your armor’s a bit too showy, isn’t it?”

“No. Well, for now, at least. I was thinking Bayde Rel. Is that cool?”

Ahsoka shrugged and let go of his hands to wrap her arms around his neck. “No idea, I’ve never heard of it. But as long as I'm with  _ you _ ,” she teased on a musical note. Fives did connect their lips then, and he wasn’t sure if he kissed her because he loved the girl he was with or because he really  _ did _ just want to shut her up. 

It was a brief yet effective kiss; soon, Ahsoka was practically skipping at Fives’s side, clinging to his arm as he directed them to the next location. They received disturbed stares of nearby pedestrians, especially from the mob dressed in formal attire conversing on the steps leading up to the casino. They eyed Fives’s armor with nasty, haughty glares evident throughout their scrunched faces as they puffed on their addictive drugs and slung their arms around the scantily clad women flanking their sides. Fives and Ahsoka were too wrapped up in one another to do anything other than smile uncontrollably, too confident in their deftly proficient abilities to worry about threatening gazes. 

That was, of course, until they’d passed the casino and were headed down a row of maintenance warehouses. 

It was the time of night in which the crowd of passerby didn’t look twice at someone who sported a blaster slung across their shoulders. The anxiety that had strained on Fives’s senses before manifested now not as its former emotion, but instead as a memory to trigger a justification for his reactions. The face of the scarred gray-plated helmet was way ahead of them in the oncoming wave of people, hidden somewhat between two laughing Theelins. He continued walked steadily even as Fives watched the assassin hitch the end of his rifle to his shoulder and sneakily lift the barrel to point in their direction -

Before he’d even processed for what reasons he was acting under, Fives had snatched Ahsoka’s hand and bolted between two large supply trucks tucked within a nearby warehouse. A ripped mat stained with grime meant to soften the fall of the maintenance works was positioned behind one of the trucks, and realizing he still needed to supply a lie for Ahsoka’s sake Fives shoved her onto the cushioned mat and fell on top of her. They were effectively concealed from the walkway bustling with night partiers just outside the warehouse, but they were enveloped in more shadow that made it nearly impossible to see. Fives was a bit glad for that as the adrenaline of his activated instincts sizzled out of his system and were replaced with spuming nerves; he couldn’t see the shocked expression of Ahsoka. 

“Fives,  _ what - _ ”

He smashed their lips together before she could gasp anything else out. His leg moved between hers as he kept her pinned beneath the weight of him. Fives didn’t think, just opened his mouth and swept over hers continuously, kissing her deeply and somewhat roughly to keep her head tilted back into the mat. Ahsoka’s knee came up and leaned into his waist, and she didn’t protest when Fives took her hands from off his pauldrons and restrained them on either side of her head. She moaned heartily into his mouth and reveled at his enthusiasm; she always did, but nevertheless….the current circumstances were a bit suspicious. 

Fives finally let up after tons of noisy shuffling against each other and sharp intakes of air through the nose. He panted softly into her neck, lapping his tongue over the heat of her skin, and felt as her chest heaved up into his torso at every overwrought breath. 

“Wow,” she breathed. “Um. I was not expecting that. I thought we were going somewhere to eat? But you already want to just….?”

Fives choked back a small dry laugh that flitted up his throat. He found it fitting that Ahsoka seemed unopposed and flexible in considering the idea of having sex with him right here, in public, on a filthy worker’s mat that smelled like grease and sweat, if that was what he wanted. He grinned to himself through huffs of breath and kissed his way up her right lek. Of course, she wouldn’t have any preconceived expectations of what was normal, or  _ acceptable _ ; there were no rules in this game to a girl raised with weapons and mystical powers her entire life. 

“No, no, not right now,” Fives murmured, and released her wrists to properly plank above her. He realized his intentions looked like the exact opposite in that moment. “I just, uh….wanted to, um,  _ re-do _ , yeah, re-do that last, er, kiss.”

Ahsoka scoffed and spread her hands back over his pauldrons. “Fives, I don’t know what the hell your problem is tonight, but I’m sure if you just fucking  _ told _ -”

“Listen to me,” Fives whispered suddenly, surging with refined faculties again as his original reason for secluding them registered all at once. “Where we’re going has a drive-thru option. I hadn’t planned on doing that before, for obvious reasons….but I changed my mind now. We can’t stand in line waiting at a packed restaurant, okay?”

“Fives you are  _ not _ making any sen-”

“As soon as we get out of here, we’ll have to take a speeder - I don’t know whose, I don’t know from where, but we’re taking what we can find, because we can’t have this date without getting food, y’know?”

“We are not stealing a godsdamn speeder, are you craz-”

“Trust me, everything I’m suggesting right now is better than the alternative. You ready? ‘Kay, we gotta go  _ now _ .”

Fives wasted no time. He sprang to his feet, pulling an outraged Ahsoka up after him, and tightly latched onto her, keeping her close by his side as he made them take off. It was incredible how his subconscious worked in tandem; he knew exactly what to expect from this kind of stand-off situation with a bounty hunter, an instilled knowledge he could trust to congruously perform with what he knew of Ahsoka. She might complain and scold him loudly, but she would never turn down a spontaneous chance for some action, for high stakes and an edge of danger. Fives knew that kind of thing was her very definition of excitement.

They burst out onto the walkway, guaranteed now to turn heads, but it didn’t matter. Fives squeezed Ahsoka’s hand and they dashed expertly through the night. He watched a four-seater speeder descend onto the edge of the walkway ahead of them, where a group of teenagers were exuberantly waiting for whoever was driving to park and join them. Fives gritted his teeth and risked cutting through the oncoming crowd to head for that speeder on their left. 

A green laser bullet whizzed at them and narrowly missed as it collided with the durasteel railing of the walkway. Ahsoka gasped, startled, and Fives made them pick up speed as terrified shrieks and rampant scurrying suddenly erupted all around them. The satchel slung down Fives’s back smacked into him at every jarring swish of his kama, and the shawl Ahsoka wore flapped outwards like wings while she ran.

“What the fuck is going on, Fives?!” Ahsoka shouted furiously. 

Everything was fast-paced and unnecessarily frantic. Fives’s conditioned reflexes ensured his mind didn’t dwell on irrelevancies; like his disbelief at his shit luck, for one thing. Those teenagers were seemingly struck dumb at the sound of a blaster being fired somewhere else on the walkway, standing petrified as Fives and Ahsoka reached them, lingering at the side of the speeder like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to jump in and go or crouch beside it for cover. 

“What are you talking about?” Fives quickly tossed at Ahsoka, as breezily as if she’d asked him why his hair was styled to his preferences. 

One youthful expense was traded for another as Fives jumped into the speeder and dropped into the driver’s seat. The frightened commotion was apparently erased from the memories of the teenagers and they instantly adopted scandalized, disgusted expressions as if Fives’s behavior was somehow pungent. 

“Our situation is more important, sorry!” Fives told them quickly. Ahsoka glided into the passenger seat after him, the eager participation of her muscles betraying the apologetic look she bore at the kids. Without losing a tick, the vehicle’s engine ignited and they lifted off the walkway. There was a second blast that skittered off the trunk end and lodged through the low front viewport between Fives and Ahsoka. It left an impressively round hole. They flinched and turned to glance at each other with differing facial expressions. 

“Hey  _ bitches _ , that’s my roommate’s speeder! I know I did  _ not _ just get robbed by a FUCKING CLONE!!”

They heard the screech just as Fives jerked the wheel and they took off through the sky, the prejudiced teen apparently undeterred in their chosen priority even as a few more bullets managed to hit the underside of the speeder.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Ahsoka demanded, her tone struggling to sound harsh. It proved difficult with the large smile planted on her face. Fives steered the speeder through alleys and other strange shortcuts carved in the city like a maze, subjecting them to blasts of neon lights or voids of black shadow. 

“You mean other than the fact that I love you and this is such a  _ perfect _ first date,  _ cyar’ika _ ?” 

When Fives glanced over to Ahsoka after a moment, wind whipping through his hair and igniting a chill at the back of his neck, he hadn’t expected to see her slumped all the way back in the seat, eyes screwed shut with a hand covering her mouth. She convulsed silently, her lekku slipping over her shoulders and freely waving like flags in the wind as much as her shawl was, until her hand fell from her face and authentically ostentatious laughter racked against the wind. Fives started laughing, too, before he even realized his shoulders were practically juggling up and down, and he had no idea why. 

“You’re fucking insane!” Ahsoka cried through incessant shudders. She tried to regain her serious composure, but the pitch of ebullience kept slipping into her vocal chords. “I have to know what’s going on - and  _ why _ the hell it’s going on.”

“There’s nothing you need to know,” Fives replied. He knew it was impossible to maintain Ahsoka’s ignorance of his  _ very _ personal situation, but his heart thudded profusely with the dominance of a senseless, utterly reckless nature. 

The speeder lurched off balance in a jerky movement, the echo of a sniper rifle bouncing off the surrounding buildings as the side of the vehicle burst into a shower of yellow sparks. Fives tightened his grip on the wheel and squinted all around them with a groan as they zipped faster to their destination. 

“Fives!” Ahsoka said accusingly. 

“ _ Shit _ .” He thought he caught a glimpse of another speeder, gold-plated and lurking behind a string of cable-lined poles, but he wasn’t exactly sure what his enemy currently  _ was _ . 

After a near-collision with a tour transport bus, they spun sharply down another row of marketplaces, until the twinkling letters of  _ Bayde Rel _ sprayed over Fives’s face like the light of a fucking angel in that moment. He’d been right; there was a crowded cluster of speeders circulating a ginormous window where a Mirialan woman was boxed in, communicating to the hovering customers through an enlarged microphone. Without a moment’s hesitation, Fives careened the speeder towards the front of the line. 

“No, it’s okay, see? We’re just gonna….whoops.” 

Ahsoka gripped the handle by her door hatch until her knuckles quivered as Fives made an unruly show of themselves; a long row of wide eyes stared with an extensive range of horror to fury as the speeder fiercely descended to slot itself directly before the window. Fives even bumped into the vehicle that had previously been relaying an order, and Ahsoka inwardly cringed as a chorus of screams rang from the line. 

The Mirialan shifted uncomfortably behind the mic, black brows knitted in dramatic alarm as she stared back at Ahsoka’s embarrassed grimace and Fives’s cheesy grin. In an instant, a Devaronian, presumably the manager, balancing two steaming dishes on her bony wrists emerged from the chaos of the kitchen behind the window, nudged the Mirialan aside and spoke briskly into the mic, “Respectfully move your insolent ass to the back of the line like how a damn drive-thru  _ works _ , sir. I’ve got five extra employees busting their balls on the shift tonight, and if you think you’re going to just -”

“No need to thank me, ma’am. Busting my  _ own _ balls for a galactic war fulfills my very purpose in life, believe it or not,” Fives told the speaker. Another laugh ripped out of Ahsoka, but not even because she necessarily found anything  _ funny _ . “Anyways, um, do you guys have like a menu special available, or something?”

After glancing at the incredulously impatient faces of the Devaronian and the Mirialan, Ahsoka managed to spurn her trauma-induced humor and rounded on Fives. 

“Fives, these people are endangered just by us  _ being _ here,” she hissed. 

“Uh, they most absolutely are not, Ahsoka.”

“Do you two need something?” the manager barked. 

“I’m so sorry, you’ll have to excuse my boyfriend. He has trouble with situational awareness -” Ahsoka shot him a pointed look, “- and telling the truth, apparently.”

“In this one singular case, the truth is a very subjective thing,” Fives fired back at her. “You’re the one whose shebs are ensnared by a sacred code, and yet you still willingly neglected your protocol to canoodle with a soldier.  _ What _ would your order think.”

“That is so fucking rich coming from you! Give me  _ one _ example of when you actually came down from that pompous high of yours and listened to the rules.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to, Hardcase?” There was a beat. “I follow orders. All the time, in fact.”

“Is this a prank or are you ordering?” 

Fives and Ahsoka whipped back to the staticky echo roaring over the sounds of a busy Coruscant night. 

“Of  _ course _ we’re ordering, we’re on a date. And I’d like to have some kind of normal dinner devoid of protein and hydrating salt with my, er, Commander. Before I’m shot in action.” Fives pursed his lips and found himself caught within a hysterics spectrum of humor and deep irritation at the bewildered stares of the workers behind the glass. “No need to worry, either - no one’s getting shot tonight. No one’s in  _ danger _ , Ahsoka, thank you very much.”

Not a second later, a speeder’s cannon blast zipped towards the drive-through line from somewhere above them. Fives and Ahsoka yelped collectively as it shot into one of their repulsorlift engines and it exploded into a ball of flames. 

“I….spoke too soon,” Fives remarked, and rightly so: the civilians crammed in their speeders wrapped around the front of Bayde Rel went into full panic mode, squawking like mynocks and frantically jerking their vehicles to fly out of there. 

“There’s nothing subtle about you, is there?” Ahsoka declared sardonically.

Fives revved up their failing engines and drifted forwards. “Two specials, please!” he shouted at the receiving speaker, and they sped away. 

The restaurant had a parking platform just beside their sit down building tucked beneath the elevated kitchens where the drive-through was, and their speeder was making a wobbly descent towards the duracrete. If Ahsoka didn’t experience this kind of rapid action on a daily basis, her neck might have snapped. She also wouldn’t have been used to the wash of heat whispering its way down the speeder and brushing the back of her flapping lek. They were definitely going to ‘land uncontrollably’ in the platform lot, and through the mirror fastened at the top of the duraplast window Ahsoka watched their enemy swivel into view. The shower of fire their speeder rained down over them scorched the edges of her vision in a frantic moment. 

“Yeah, so, we’re gonna crash….” 

“ _ Jump out, _ idiot!”

Ahsoka didn’t have much choice when her instincts took over and her muscles worked in tandem to spring her from the passenger seat and land the next six meters to the ground. Her mind focused quickly to steady Fives on the ground as he came bolting through the air from above. The speeder had barely smashed to the pavement in a terrible shriek of compressing metals, skidded along several parking spaces in a series of explosions, before Fives was seizing her arm and pulling her into a sprint, looking disheveled yet determined. 

_ This guy just doesn’t give up. _

The eyes of the citizens flowing down the steps from Bayde Rel’s extravagant threshold swiveled to the couple racing past as if their reserved spot inside was in jeopardy. They came to an abrupt halt almost as soon as they dashed through the front, and Fives threw his astonished gaze all around while an  _ ‘uhh’ _ droned from his mouth. The whole restaurant, stretched out in a cluster of tables packed with chatting upperclassmen, was all swallowed in a peculiar darkness; a red glow sprinkled down from above, and Ahsoka briefly wondered if the music flooding her ears was meant to complement it. Her montrals surged with a sudden cold rush, and from where she was attached to Fives’s arm Ahsoka spun her head to look back behind them. Sure enough, someone was frighteningly hot on each edge of the duracrete steps, shrouded in ominously masking attire with a rifle anchored in the crook of their elbow. 

“Time to move, Fives,” Ahsoka remarked simply. Fives seized her hand this time, and before she knew it they were off running again. 

They maneuvered with ridiculous haste through the labyrinth of round dining tables, disturbing everyone’s fanciful night. Coruscant’s social ideology had never been integrated within Fives or Ahsoka, so they felt no shame or embarrassment as they bumped the back of seats and half-crashed into the sides of tables with their hips. This entire devilish procession was instantly upended; people were yelling now, instead of laughing, and indignantly jumping to their feet with ferocious outrage. It was a matter of moments before the music was drowned out, along with Ahsoka’s bursts of apologies, but in their defense this murky lighting veiled one’s vision, and it was no doubt difficult for Fives to make out anything before him in pronounced visuals. 

And anyways, everyone’s attention shifted to ducking for cover while screaming bloody murder a few seconds after a surprise blaster bolt whizzed between Ahsoka’s montrals and shaved the side of Fives’s forearm gauntlet. 

“Go, go, go -” Fives urged, and they zipped through the upheaval to where a section of the restaurant elongated onto an open ramada. 

The dingy red dissipated into natural hues emitted by the night Coruscant sky, and a regulated temperature superseded the previous frowzy heat. Fallacious panic hadn’t yet struck the people out on this patio, although some had stood attentively to what was going on inside and everyone’s face was painted in chary, their nights clearly having been abruptly halted. Ahsoka didn’t have the time to roar in frustration - or gawk in disgust at the lamps strung around the ramada shade pouring their steady streams of that red lighting - before she was frantically guided to sit in a patio chair at an empty table.

Fives appeared in front of her in the half-blink of an eye. Watching him settle across the table with a poorly hidden expression of wariness, Ahsoka morphed her own countenance to a scathing stare. She found the path up her throat was rather subdued in contrast to the brewing storm in her head, so the flow of rash expression was clotted and she stayed silent. 

“I’m betting the pavement will be frying before this place gets our order to us,” Fives ended up saying when he managed to meet Ahsoka’s glare. He looked jittery sitting in place, and he had the breathless quaver in his voice to show for it. “That kitchen looked slower than a third wave clanker tank.” 

The bouncing foot Fives had pressed against his chair leg increased its pace. Ahsoka’s withering look was enough to make someone sweat their credits off. “Something wrong?”

“I am  _ so _ -” Ahsoka huffed. “I don’t even know what to say to you right now. I’m, like, shocked, I’m in…. _ unbelievable _ . You are so ridiculously unbelievable, you stubborn ass.”

“Kriff, what did  _ I _ do?” Fives said exasperatedly. His shoulders felt unnaturally tense under the stress of Ahsoka’s seeping consternation. “I thought that we decided it’s hard to get mad at each other for much of anything because this relationship isn’t, like,  _ in the open, _ so -”

“Fives.” Ahsoka was deadpan. “Why in the hell have we been chased by only the gods know what with a blaster?”

“It’s, uh. Not really the story you want to tell on a date.”

“Do ever  _ think _ before you fucking  _ do? _ Don’t you ever stop and go, ‘oh, I’m such a dumbass, maybe making that decision  _ wasn’t _ a good idea -’”

“I’m a recon soldier, Ahsoka, of course I don’t.” He was a reconnaissance soldier, and yet he was still suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of conflict. The majority of his mindless efforts so far tonight have led to this exact moment, in which Ahsoka was frustratingly disappointed, and he hadn’t solved or concealed the salient issue at hand. 

“You’re  _ going _ to tell me why someone’s tailing our asses and trying to fucking kill us,” Ahsoka told him. 

“I was really hoping I’d avoid this conversation. And that piece of sleemo shit, too.”

“Uh-huh. You weren’t very subtle in making  _ that _ intention clear.”

“I don’t know why I pictured a date as a time where I’d get indulged in ‘oh you’re so hot, and I think you’re super sexy,’ and all that stuff. And yet here you are, ripping my very soul out,  _ again. _ ”

Fives watched as the spread fingers Ahsoka had planted upon the table slowly curl back into her palms. “You call this a date?!”

Their attention was averted back to their surroundings at the heightened sounds of a vexed crowd and the ominous rumbling of engines, but the sting of their argument took its damn time to settle back for later all the same. The sight of a mass of people spilling out onto the ramada was initially alarming, but not quite as daunting as the speeder - which was  _ full _ of obscure killers clutching blaster rifles - that Fives peered just past Ahsoka’s lekku to watch descend beside the corner of the patio in a blocking-maneuver style. Judging by the fixed concentration Ahsoka’s eyes bore into something beyond Fives’s own head, the threat didn’t stop at the speeder. 

When Fives turned and saw a similar jumble of masked assassins closing in from the opposite side on foot, he and Ahsoka instantly fell into a steadfast understanding. They each disappeared from their seats at the table, and strode over to their respective far sides of the patio in a flurry of fluid, systematic movements. It was their entrenched instincts of skill and procedure spurring to life, if only for mere seconds, to purge their night of this relentless hurdle. 

Fives procured his deece from the satchel without hesitation. The small mob, to their credit, wasted no time in lifting their armory to fire at Fives’s approaching figure. They scattered quickly on skipping feet to secure a range of blasting advantages. Fives kicked over a heavy table and dived cleanly for cover. As blaster bullets showered the table from all sides, Fives only subconsciously recalled the ignition of a lightsaber, which he didn’t think too much about in the moment considering it was obvious what Ahsoka was doing to the party in the speeder. 

Intuitive skill activated like a switch and Fives had taken out at least three of the opposing force before he knew it, leveraging his elbows out to fire and ducking his head back behind the table. The blasts that surged into the thick width of the upturned table became less and less incessant; Fives ditched the hideout to jog over to where two freshly scorched bodies were slumped in a heap. The remaining three of the enemy matched his pace, gaining a roundabout’s momentum, until their sloppy shots were effortlessly dodged and Fives seared a fatal hit into each of them. 

The last body had hardly dropped down dead before Fives was spinning on his heel to subconsciously calculate and insert himself within the other engagement. His brain allowed a fraction of spatial recognition, in which a flow of collective screams and flurries of panic washed into his ears from the witnessing crowd. Many were scrambling mindlessly in shivery cries, but for the most part everyone amassed on the patio was petrified by the violent show, beginning to process that the attested threat had been obliterated. 

It was the furiously contorted face of Ahsoka leering from directly before him that made Fives freeze to the spot. The final standoff wasn’t finished, it seemed. He had to double back with astounding reflexes as a saber sizzling with green-stained energy was thrusted into his face. Incredulous, Fives eyed the shoto poised towards him in Ahsoka’s other hand with a frown; instinctively he leveled both of his blasters directly at, his….special Jedi companion. 

“You brought your deeces?  _ Fives!” _ Ahsoka scoffed. “I thought I told you we weren’t bringing weapons, godsdamnit.”

“Oh, come on, what the hell else would’ve been in the bag?” Fives said mordantly. The people who knew him usually anticipated the worst possible outcome from him, and he was used to that. For someone to  _ not _ have expected his behavior was a foreign thing to grapple with. “Some toasted warra nuts?”

“Did you deliberately make all this shit happen tonight? Because, I’ll be honest -”

_ “Hey -” _

“- that’s the  _ only _ way I can comprehend why everything that went down tonight  _ went down.” _

Flicking his gaze past Ahsoka, the battle-ready segment of Fives’s consciousness was nurtured with the truth of why he hadn’t needed to tend to a second altercation: the speeder was flipped over a long ways down the plaza where it had crashed, billowing smoke crawling over its ruptured sides, and the bodies that had been previously seated inside were pecked out in a line to the ramada, their insides nastily gauged. Fives jerked his aimed blasters at the defensively extended lightsaber. 

“Ahsoka, those are  _ lightsabers _ in your hands right now.” Fives noticed with a pang of brewing guilt that his voice was shaking. He was pinned beneath the weight of the fact that he’d successfully rendered their date royally fucked for the night, due to his well-intended attempts to keep Ahsoka’s time with him stress-free. He really did feel like an idiot, and disliked this aggressive confrontation. 

Ahsoka rolled her shoulders, and the garment that had remained intact for the high-staked encounter ruffled from where it was draped over her arms. “I hid them under the shawl,” she stated dryly. “I knew you wouldn’t have been suspicious, because it was kind of dress-upish.”

Their weapons were merely indicators of accusation gestured at what had accidentally been revealed; it was an odd situation of reversal. However, it was the hard gaze fixed between them, raked through with tension, that held their stances fast like a taut rope. 

“I promise, it will  _ not _ look good to slice up one of your ARCs.”

“You can do so much better than that.” Than  _ this. _ Fives usually whisked away any subtextual critique on his character easier than when he masterfully dove from a gunship hull, if he was even inclined to pick up on it, so he hadn’t expected the foundation of his very core to feel  _ shaken. _ The slack around Ahsoka’s mouth and the explosive emotion bulging through her eyes struck Fives in a hurtful way worse than what he could’ve prepared for. “This isn’t a plea for your life.”

“No? Then what is it?”

“I’d say a plea for the restoration of the date.”

The muscles packed tight like duracrete throughout his arms suddenly grew heavy with the effort of lifting two blasters out before him. An unnatural occurrence for a conditioned clone, of course, so it probably had something more to do with how Ahsoka’s words managed to surge sluggish blood to his heart. 

“Alright,” he said carefully. “Okay. I really didn’t mean for - any of  _ this. _ Sorry you had to dispose of….those guys. Although, in all reality, I wouldn’t have placed credits on any of them.”

Ahsoka studied him for a moment, before she sighed stiffly. She relinquished her steadfast threat on him, and deactivated her sabers. “I get it,” she said, her eyes cast down at the hilts she rolled over in her hands - a shade of her mien that never lent anything agreeable. “You had - whatever the hell this dilemma was to deal with, figured it would ruin the date, and inevitably refrained from telling me.”

Fives immediately dropped his arms to his sides. “Want me to explain how the strips and streets became my own personal battleground? Well, up until  _ now,  _ I guess, but I can totally start from the beginning if -”

“No, thanks, we’ve surpassed that stage,” Ahsoka said. She looked slumped on the spot, like she was struggling to get something off her chest. Fives decided to shut his mouth, but not without some difficulty; he was an expeditious man, and ached to draw Ahsoka tightly into his arms, chuck his blasters down the plaza walkway,  _ something _ to resolve her frustration with him. “It’s just - well, we already don’t know what the fuck we’re doing with the whole stupid dating thing. And it just doesn’t help when we hide all the stupid shit from each other, too.”

The tone in her voice, emphasized with the kernels of what could probably get her kicked out of the Jedi Order, prickled at Fives’s heart rather painfully. “Yeah.”

He slid his deece into their holsters, and took a step forward. “Hey, you’ve got every right to be upset. Like all kark I wanted this to happen.” Ahsoka’s gaze was still stubbornly stuck somewhere else, and Fives was desperate to fix that. As she attached her lightsabers to her belt, Fives leaned his upper body closer to her, extending a cautious hand like it wanted to ask her a question. “I was probably dishonest because of how badly I didn’t want this kind of turnout…. _ but.  _ Yeah, I fucked up.” 

Ahsoka’s head lifted, and her gaze locked with Fives’s. “I’m sorry,” he finished.

Even though Fives and Ahsoka had their priorities wrapped up in their own drama, the patrons of Bayde Rel as well as any other nearby nosy civilians certainly hadn’t forgotten them. Ahsoka broke her look into Fives’s eyes to crisply convert her attention to the dispersing crowd on the ramada. Fives didn’t let whatever impetuous content caked into the declarative cries of those who’d been most spooked stray his attentiveness from the girl in front of him. Something like glee streaked through his veins when Ahsoka’s hand crept forward and grasped his arm. He took that as his cue to step closer. 

She turned back to him with renewed energy, which was potentially due to the threat of contacting local police for the assault ringing all around them, but there was underlying forgiveness in her eyes. “You know what could happen right now?” she asked him. 

Fives slid a hand under her jaw and lightly held her chin. “Anything for you, love.”

“Why don’t we stop at Riyo’s, see what she’s doing, and  _ possibly _ have dinner in her kitchen or maybe  _ go _ wherever she suggests.” Senator Shrill-Twigged Chuchi? Fives could think of three enthralling date alternatives to conversing with any of Ahsoka’s little friends. But her arms were snaking their way around his waist, and he couldn’t smother the grin fixing across his face. “Then, we’ll have a  _ real _ conversation. To my standards, of course, and  _ then….” _ Ahsoka leaned up on her toes to crane her face near Fives’s neck, and added a sultry note to her voice. “I might consider letting you show me just how sorry you are, for all of this….fuckery.”

“It was that bad, huh?”

“It was  _ so _ bad it’s actually funny to think about.” Ahsoka’s head quirked in thought. “Well, it was kind of fun.”

“I thought so.”

There was a shout from somewhere behind them, and the gravity for the necessity of haste was accentuated by the jolting front of Coruscant police following the outraged finger pointed in their direction. The crowd was, while not wholly impressive, still very much abundant with stationary passerby, but who were now there for mere speculation purposes, and who needed material for their morning gossip at a café. 

Ahsoka ignored the gapes practically engulfed all around them and snatched Fives’s arm. “If they deploy the fucking Coruscant Guard for  _ your _ instigated massacre, it really is the end of the line for us.” 

“Have more confidence in your evasive abilities, Commander,” Fives joked, and squeezed her forearm back with equal vigor. “The worst that could happen is either my public execution or my permanent castration -  _ both _ scenarios of which will effectively put an end to our romantic engagements. After tonight, though, that probably doesn’t seem so awful.”

Ahsoka seemed to soften at that, despite the urgency of their circumstance. “Oh, shut up.” She pressed herself against him and laid her hands flat on his chest. “You’re that charming guy, post-battle, who makes me forget about my Master’s passive aggressive boasting tips.”

They kissed while the aggressive pounding of boots thudded through a curious mass of people.

Fives pulled away, but immediately missed the heat of her lips. “You know, you called me your boyfriend.”

“Maybe. It was the heat of the moment.”

“Well I’d like to think I could be applied to that title….”

“I  _ never _ would’ve agreed to this if I’d known it’d make you such a sap.”

Fives knew his natural deportment would never have subjected him to something as frivolous as a  _ labelled relationship _ , but he breezily feigned offense anyway. “Impossible. In contrast, you make me a really hard man.”

Ahsoka suppressed her giggle. “You know what, Fives? I think I love you.”

The hands Fives had resting on her waist were already trembling to a minimal degree, but he blinked dully at her. “I think you’ve already told me that.”

“Hm, I have?” Ahsoka’s mouth scrunched to one side. “That can’t be right.”

Fives laughed, and his joy continued to burst from his mouth even as Ahsoka threaded their fingers together and they made a swift bolt down the walkway. 


End file.
